


Set In Stone

by actionkat



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Flirting, Fluff, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 12:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5047942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actionkat/pseuds/actionkat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While keeping score, Rose sees a piece of the Doctor's future in a 70th century museum that makes her worry about her future with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Set In Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place sometime after New Earth, short scene inspired by the line in 5x4 about the Doctor keeping score.

The Doctor is a narcissistic man. Not overly so, but he was the type who loved walking past shiny things just to admire himself as they walked by. She knew this, but the fact became even more clear the first time he had taken her to that 70th century museum. He had enthusiastically set the coordinates on the TARDIS, rambling about keeping score. Rose had just giggled quietly, as she watched him grin and bound around the room, while she gripped to the controls as he set them off through space and time into the void.

They never went to the same museum in the same century twice, the first time he took her to 'keep score' she had officially realized how bonkers the man she was traveling with was. Which was funny, considering how long she had been traveling with him now.

He had bolted to run around the museum like a kid in a candy shop the moment they had landed. Calling at her every time he saw a piece that he for one reason or another had been apart of. Rose wandered the museum, only half listening to him. As she wandered around the artifacts, one item caught her attention.

"Can't be..." She whispered to herself, but leaning closer to inspect the chipped and worn item confirmed her suspicions. It was an old Roman artifact. An old Roman artifact with an image of the TARDIS and two people standing next to it depicted in it, one of them looked to be the Doctor. The other person was a woman she didn't recognize. The plaque underneath said it was a 'worshipping tablet of unknown gods' and that it had been used to give thanks to said gods especially before consuming food.

Rose called the Doctor over, interrupting his never-ending commentary of each piece. Begrudgingly he came over from admiring something across the room. She pointed at the item in the glass casing.

The Doctor pushed his specs up onto his nose. "Now, I don't remember this happening." He paused leaning in to read the plaque, he pulled back a moment later and looked at her, smirking. "I'm a god."

Rose hit his shoulder. "Are not. Alien, yes. God? No."

He smiled at her. "You're right, I'd make one lousy god. Should never be one myself. Wonder what happens in my future to make people in Rome so wrongly worship us." He commented, inspecting the rock with his sonic screwdriver, wishing he could actually touch it.

She tilted her head. "Us? Doctor, that's not me with you and the TARDIS in that."

He squinted at the carving. "'Pose it's not. Should be. Unlike me, you'd be worthy of god and worship status."

She studied his face. "The fact that it's just you and some strange woman doesn't worry you at all?"

He paused, face slowly dropping a bit as he shrugged and attempted to drag her away from the item over to the other side of the room, but she refused to move from her spot.

"Doctor." She said, with a stern and demanding tone Jackie Tyler would be proud of, her arms crossed. The tablet had not bothered her much beyond curiosity until the Doctor's brush off approach about the other woman in the image.

He sighed and turned back to his companion. "In all seriousness, you would make a much better god than I would."

Being the only two people in the room became a lot more obvious the longer they stood there, the quietness becoming more obvious with every shoe squeak, and the only constant sound being some sort of ventilation system in the walls and ceiling. The overwhelming notion that nothing could interrupt or disturb this moment fell heavy on them both.

"Does the fact that I'm not in the picture bother you at all? That I might not... not..."

The Doctor was taken back by the emotion on her face. Hurt. She looked hurt and worried. "Of course I do." He finally said. "But Rose, it's the future. It's set in stone, quite literally. I don't know what happened to make that stone exist or where you are when it happened, or even who that other woman is. I can't know. It's my own future, knowing could create a paradox, and that..." He trailed off, reaching to take one of Rose's hands in his own. "I don't want to think about the possibilities of why you aren't there."

"Oh."

Rose was slightly shocked by his statement. This wasn't the type of conversation they usually had, nor did the Doctor often voice his care for her. Usually showing it in actions, such as holding her hand or kissing her cheek.

"What I can say," he said as his fingers entwined with hers. "Is that I will never let anything happen to you."

"Never say never, Doctor." Rose said, taking one last look at the artifact as he led her back towards the TARDIS. "Never say never."


End file.
